'Shut up,' Rep. Scott McInnis, R-Colo., said to his colleague at the July 18 meeting of the House Ways and Means Committee.
'You think you are big enough to make me, you little wimp?' challenged Rep. Pete Stark, D-Calif. 'Come over here and make me.
I dare you. You little fruitcake. You little fruitcake. I said you are a fruitcake.'
Fox News tried to spin it as an antigay slur uttered by a Democrat. 'I trust that you would understand that if a Republican said that,
there would be a public lynching,' said Rep. Mark Foley, R-Fla. But Foley was as coy about this as he is about his own sexual
orientation, putting Stark's comments within the broader context of aspersions.
'Fruitcake means inept, crazy, a nut cake to me,' explained Stark.
Both the Human Rights Campaign and Log Cabin Republicans were distressed by the general tenor of the exchange but neither
sought to label it as gay in content.
The incident was triggered by committee chairman Bill Thomas, R-Calif., trying to ram pension legislation through that body, over
the objections of Democrats. Capitol Police were called as the incident escalated.
On July 23, Rep. Thomas took the floor of the House to apologize for his actions, breaking into tears during the process. The
apology helped to clear the air, but Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., remained skeptical.
Rep. Stark remained his combative and officially unapologetic self.
The Traditional Values Coalition (TVC) is in deep trouble with other conservative groups because of pressure it has put on pro-life
congressmen over a drug reimportation bill.
In 'Values for Sale' and other articles in the National Review Online, Ramesh Ponnuru documented efforts by Lou Sheldon's
group to claim that a bill allowing cheaper reimportation of drugs from Canada would relax control on RU-486, the so-called morning
after abortion pill.
Ponnuru and a front-page article in the Washington Post linked papers prepared by the Pharmaceutical Research and
Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) and payments that they made to the TVC. PhRMA reportedly contacted other conservative
organizations with a similar offer, but they declined.
In a direct mail letter to constituents of about two dozen pro-life congressmen, Andrea Sheldon Lafferty asserted that the
reimportation bill would 'effectively repeal' the law prohibiting the sale of abortion products through the mail.
That is untrue because a doctor's prescription, examination and follow-up visits would all be required for access to RU-485.
'I am ashamed to be in the same business with these people. It is lying to the grassroots by people whom they believe are
sincerely interested in the cause, not in payoffs to tell lies,' said Mike Schwartz, vice president of Concerned Women for America.
Socially conservative members of congress, including some who were targets of the attack letters, were so outraged that they
have barred the TVC from meetings of their Values Action Team for at least a year.
